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Riot

From the initial revolt in Ferguson last August to the demonstrations in Oakland and Berkeley last week, property destruction has been central to a new wave of struggle against police violence. But what does vandalizing businesses have to do with protesting police brutality? Why break windows?

Tear gas and smoke bombs scattered protesters during a march that started peacefully in Berkeley, Saturday night.

The skirmish with police began near Addison near Shattuck at about 6:30 p.m. as police and masked protesters faced off. the protesters broke windows along University Ave. near Martin Luther King Blvd., smashed bottles and spray painted graffiti. Others took hammers and smashed ATM machines, and overturned garbage dumpsters.

A small pamphlet on police, property, and arson at the local hot-n-ready pizza shop. An argument in defense of indiscriminate property destruction, for those who support the anger in Ferguson but have reservations about riots. Print-formatted PDF download here.

It was inevitable: After news spread of anti-police riots in the small college town of Keene, New Hampshire, on Oct. 18, people on Twitter started comparing media coverage of the incident with that of the riots in Ferguson, Missouri. However, the difference in coverage between the first weeks of protest in Ferguson and the night of drunken rioting that emerged from the Keene Pumpkin Festival was telling. As white college kids in Keene flipped cars and threw bottles at cops for the fun of it, the media called them rowdy booze-filled revelers and all sorts of other euphemisms.